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Zendelle

Sandra Sue dolls were made by Richwood Toys, which began as a cottage industry run by Ida Wood and her family in Larchmont, New York in the late 1940s. Once the business took off, they relocated to Maryland and were successful for several years. Although Sandra Sue is unmarked, once you become familiar with her look, she is not difficult to tell apart from other similar size hard plastic dolls. The orangeish eyebrows and eyelashes are her most recognizable feature.

Body Construction
The earliest dolls dressed by Mrs. Wood were inexpensive 7.5″ composition dolls with jointed arms and frozen legs. She soon switched to hard plastic dolls, first using dolls with similar body style to the composition ones, then going on to dolls with sleep eyes and jointed necks;. The fully jointed dolls most collectors know as Sandra Sue were produced beginning in 1952. These dolls had slim bodies and flat feet. A walking version was introduced soon after. The 8″ high heeled version of Sandra Sue debuted in 1955 or ’56.

The first Sandra Sue dolls had mohair wigs but these were changed to synthetic Saran fiber early on.

Clothing
Sandra Sue was sold in many different outfits, or in half slip, camisole, panties, shoes and socks. All outfits were also available to purchase separately. She also had a full line of wooden furniture.

Sandra Sue could be purchased in her underwear or fully dressed.
Photo courtesy of eBay seller your-favorite-doll.

In addition to Sandra Sue, Richwood also produced a 14″ hard plastic girl doll called Cindy Lou, and Tina Sue, an 8″ vinyl baby.

Miss Seventeen owes her good looks in large part to the German Bild Lili doll. Marx purchased the rights to use the Lili molds and developed Miss Seventeen from there. She is larger than Bild Lili, and every other 1960s fashion doll, sold in 15″ and 18″ sizes.

Body Construction
Miss Seventeen is all hard plastic, jointed at the neck, shoulders and hips. See her body construction here. She has painted black and white eyes like the number one Barbie doll, a bright red heart shaped mouth, molded black button earrings, and high heel feet with holes in the soles. Her fine synthetic hair is rooted into a skullcap which is set into her head. She has been found with a variety of blonde and auburn hair colors, as well as jet black. Her hair is styled either into a bun on top of her head, or a ponytail.

Miss Seventeen is most often seen with a center part at the front and her hair up in a tight bun. See a side view here. See a back view here.
Photo courtesy of eBay seller franklin2000.

Markings
She is marked on her lower back “U.S. Patent 2925684 British Patent 804566 Made in Hong Kong” Click here to see the marking.

Clothing
Miss Seventeen was sold in a black one piece swim suit with her name in red on a white satin beauty queen style sash, a red cape lined in white, and red shoes. Her accessories are a gold plastic crown and a gold trophy with removable lid.

She has twelve extra boxed outfits, ranging from beach wear to evening wear to a wedding gown. Click here to see the back of the box with illustrations of all the outfits.

Click on a photo to see a larger version.
Photos courtesy of eBay seller dreamalong.

Packaging
She was packaged in a black box with her name in green script along with the words “A Beauty Queen.” See photo at top. She came with a black stand with a metal prong to fit into the holes in her feet, and a fashion booklet. Her separate outfits were packaged in gatefold “Fashion Books” that opened up to show a large illustration of the outfit with a paragraph setting the scene.

Learn More:

Collector’s Guide to Dolls
of the 1960s and 1970s
Volume 1
by Cindy SabulisFind it on eBay.

Madame Alexander produced the Lissy-faced Little Women dolls from 1957 through 1968, representing the characters of the four March girls – Jo, Meg, Beth, Amy – and their mother Marmee – from the book by Louisa May Alcott. (Alexander spelled Marme with only one “e”.) Laurie (the boy next door) joined the group starting in 1967. Beginning in 1968, Little Women were produced using the Nancy Drew face mold, but in the catalogs, Laurie is still shown with the Lissy mold until 1972, when they started picturing him with the Nancy Drew mold as well. In 1993 there was a reissue of the four girls without Marmee or Laurie using the Lissy face.

Body Construction
In 1957 and ’58 the dolls had jointed knees and elbows; later versions had straight arms and legs. All were jointed at the neck, shoulders and hips, and made entirely of hard plastic with glued-on synthetic wigs. They have sleep eyes with molded lashes and are 11.5″ to 12″ tall. The dolls differ from the regular Lissy line in that they have flat feet. Beth, Jo, Marmee and Laurie are brunettes, while Meg has dark blonde hair and Amy a lighter blonde.

Clothing
The clothing can be identified by the tag at the back of the neck. The outfits changed several times during the years the dolls were sold, and can be dated by the outfit. Not every outfit changed every year. This table of the outfits by year may not be completely accurate. The outfits were not always the same as pictured in the catalog. They were not pictured in the 1966 or ’68 catalogs. Click on a photo to see a larger image.

Eugene dolls are challenging to identify because they sometimes used the same name for different dolls, and sometimes different names for the same doll. The name in the catalog description does not always match the name shown on the box.
Click on the photo to see a larger version.

Bisque and china dolls are both made of porcelain. Bisque is unglazed, while china has a shiny glazed finish. While the vast majority of bisque dolls that interest collectors would be classified as antique rather than vintage, there are quite a few bisque and china dolls that fit well into a vintage collection.

At the start of the 20th century, the majority of bisque and china dolls were made in Germany. Most of these were similar to the dolls that had been produced there for decades. But early in the 20th century, bisque dolls began to appear that had a decidedly modern look. These were the Kewpies, and they were designed by American illustrator Rose O’Neill. George Borgfeldt & Co., an American distributor, hired sculptor Joseph Kallus to turn the Kewpies into three dimensional dolls, and outsourced their manufacture to Germany. The Kewpies and their wide-eyed “googly” look were all the rage, and they were copied by many other companies. The Kewpies have been made in every material possible, and are still popular today.

German firms continued to produce bisque dolls until World War II, when the factories were converted for use in the war effort. Some of these were German designs and others were produced, like the Kewpies, for American companies. The two dolls pictured are painted bisque – the color is not fired on and probably date from the 1920s. The doll above left is a doll house size. The one on the right is a “Betty Boop” type, more commonly made in Japan.

Many vintage bisque dolls were made in Japan during the ‘teens, twenties and thirties. If they are marked “Nippon”, like the boy in blue above, they were probably made between 1914 and 1921. Later dolls are marked “Japan.” Dolls marked “Occupied Japan,” like the baby in the center photo above, were made between 1945 and 1952.

Many Japanese all bisque dolls are jointed only at the shoulders, like the “Betty Boop” dolls pictured above. These have nothing to do with the cartoon character Betty Boop – it’s just a name that collectors use.

The Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls are American-made all bisque dolls. These were extremely popular and sold from 1936 into the 1950s, when the company switched to hard plastic. The doll pictured above is September’s Girl is Like a Storm, from the months of the year series. The Nancy Ann page and the NASB Dolls Series page have many more photos of these dolls.

China, or glazed porcelain dolls were also made in the USA. This two dolls pictured above are the Flower Girls set of Godey’s Little Lady dolls made by Ruth Gibbs of Flemington, NJ in the late forties.

There are many antique reproduction china head dolls that were made in the mid 20th century. Some were sold as kits, others were made by crafters in ceramics classes, and some were made by professional doll artists. This ad was scanned from the Spring/Summer 1958 issue of McCall’s Needlework and Crafts magazine.

Bisque was the medium of choice of many of the early doll artists. Pictured above, clockwise from top left: Meg from the Little Women series by Martha Thompson; Abigail Adams by Diana Lence Crosby; Nellie Bly by Lita Wilson and Muriel Kramer; and Miss Kentucky by Fawn Zeller. See more on the Artist Dolls page.

Most of the bisque or porcelain dolls produced in the second half of the 20th century were intended for adult collectors rather than children. This trend continues today. Pictured above is Marcella by Wendy Lawton.

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